Professional Responsibility Blog

 The ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and ABA Standing Committee on Professional Regulation is seeking comme...

 Here is a link to an article and a video discussion on why John Eastman should be disciplined.

Last week, the State Bar of California filed 11 disciplinary charges against attorney John Eastman based on his efforts to help overturn the...

In November 2021, the Idaho State Bar Commissioners recommended an amendment to Idaho Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4 to include anti-discr...

Yesterday I reported that a federal court imposed almost a million dollars in sanctions on Donald Trump and his lawyers for a frivolous case...

It can't be a good thing for the petitioner when the opinion of the court starts by saying "This case should never have been brough...

 As I reported yesterday, California is moving quickly to approve a modified version of Model Rule 8.3.   Click here for the full text of th...

Up to now, California is the only state that has not adopted some version of Model Rule 8.3 which requires lawyers to report another lawyer...

If you are interested in the topic of jury nullification, Radio Lab has a recent 1 hour long podcast on the subject.  You can listen to it h...

January 9, 2023 If you are reading this blog, you probably know already that the US Supreme Court agreed to hear a case on whether a communi...

Above the Law is reporting that last Wednesday New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron sent a note to lawyers for the Trump family and...

 A lawyer for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been suspended from practicing law in Connecticut for six months for improperly giving Jone...

 As reported in Louisiana Legal Ethics , last year, the Louisiana Legislature enacted La. Rev. Stat. 9:5605.2, which provides that "[i]...

 A bar discipline committee in Washington, D.C., has concluded that Rudy Giuliani violated at least one professional rule in his efforts to ...

December 10, 2022 The United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that raises the issue of whether a communication involving both ...

In its annual Profile of the Legal Profession for 2020, the American Bar Association defined a legal desert as a county with fewer than one ...

 Here is a short article on ethical considerations for judicial law clerks.

In the most recent case, the winners are the lawyers for failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who sued to try to force the stat...

November 13, 2022 Back on September 25 I reported ( here ) that a federal judge had dismissed a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump against Hill...

November 3. 2022 Let's assume that Lawyer Larry sends an e-mail message to Attorney Andrea about a case in which Larry is representing C...

 The Louisiana Supreme Court recently amended Louisiana Rule of Professional Conduct 1.15(d) to clarify a lawyer’s duty with respect to the ...

If you need a reminder of your ethical duties when dealing with a client with diminished capacity, a recent post in Lex Blog has you covered...

A few days ago, the Yale Law Journal online published a short essay on whether it is a good idea to allow nonlawyers to have ownership roles...

As you may remember, the District of Columbia filed disciplinary charges against both Rudy Giuliani and former Justice Department attorney J...

 In our latest entry in the "how not to practice law" series, we have a quick practice tip:  don't tell your clients to burn e...

The Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver (IAALS) recently released a new report highlighti...

Long time readers of this blog know that one of the most debated issues in the past few years involves the question of whether the regulatio...

 The ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility has issued a new Formal Ethics Opinion (No. 502), on communications wi...

 Here is another installment on the "how not to practice law" series... In today's story , the lawyer lied to the client and t...

Mike Kennedy, Vermont's Bar Counsel,  reports  that about two weeks ago, the Vermont Supreme Court approved several amendments to the Ve...

 If you have been watching the news lately you know that former President Trump has been having a terrible week in terms of legal matters.  ...

 With Trump's legal troubles mounting, there has been a lot of attention on Trump's lawyers lately.  Here are some of the headlines:...

 New Mexico will no longer deny licenses to practice law solely because of an applicant’s citizenship or immigration status, including some ...

As you probably know, in an attempt to provide better access to legal services, a few jurisdictions have allowed paralegals and other people...

Do lawyers have a duty to inform clients about litigation finance?  You can find an argument in favor of answering the question in the affir...

Two different stories from California illustrate the type of conduct that could be subject to discipline under Model Rule 8.4(g) (or simila...

Last week, the Illinois Supreme Court adopted a new Code of Judicial Conduct which includes guidance on the use of social media and financia...

A few years ago, when Model Rule 8.4(g) was proposed and was being debated everywhere, I thought I would write a short article I was planni...

Long time readers of this blog know that I have been following the ABA’s Model Rule 8.4(g) since it was first proposed for comment and since...

Yesterday, I reported that a district court judge issued a preliminary injunction banning New York's attorney general from enforcing the...

If you follow professional responsibility news, you probably know by now that last month the Federal District Court for the Southern Distric...

The Texas state bar has sued the state's Attorney General Ken Paxton arguing professional misconduct for trying to void Biden election. ...

 When I cover the duties owed to clients in class, I tell my students to remember the grades they do not want:  Cs, Ds and Fs.  This is a tr...

Back in April I reported ( here ) that the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers (APRL) formally submitted a proposal to the AB...

A recent proposal has been presented to amend a number rules in Vermont.  Vermont's Bar Counsel, Mike Kennedy, goes over the proposed ch...

April 24, 2022 Because of the pandemic, many lawyers were forced to start practicing remotely and for some of them this meant practicing ...

 One of the most debated issues in the Professional Responsibility arena in the past year has been whether states can force lawyers to join ...

A few days ago, the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility published Formal Opinion 501 in which it reminds us tha...

By now I am sure readers of this blog are familiar with Model Rule 8.4(g) and the debate on whether it would survive a Constitutional attack...

Above the Law is reporting on a case in Oklahoma in which the state is seeking the death penalty for a lawyer.  The lawyer is accused of thr...

 Michael Kennedy explains here .

Back in July of 2021 I reported that the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the mandatory bar system used in Texas was uncons...

 A standing committee of the State Bar of Texas filed a complaint in the District Court of Dallas County, Texas against former president Don...

In a recent report, a working group of the New York State Bar Association concluded that the New York Bar should not and perhaps legally may...

As you probably know by now, the State Bar of California recently announced that it had initiated a State Bar Investigation into John Eastma...

Not too long ago, Lex Blog started posting links to a new Podcast called Legal Ethics Now & Next, and just a few days ago, the second ep...

 A few days ago I posted a story about a lawyer who got in trouble for driving naked.  Today the story is about a lawyer who apparently has...

Over the past year I have reported news about the important changes in Utah regarding the approach to the regulation of the practice of law,...

The Legal Profession blog is reporting ( here ) that the Butler (Ohio) County Bar Association has recommended an indefinite suspension of an...

I have not posted a new entry in the ongoing series on "how not to practice law," so here is a new installment. A federal appeals ...

One of the most important stories of the last couple of years has been the debate over instituting changes to the regulatory regimes among t...

In an interesting development, the Virgin Islands Supreme Court recently denied a petition of the jurisdiction's Bar Association to have...

The Legal Profession blog is reporting on a recent case in which the the Florida Supreme Court apparently imposed a public reprimand of an a...

 The Legal Profession blog has the story here .  You can read the amendments here .  The amendments cover Rules 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, and...

 I have posted a number of times on the issues that arise when lawyers reply to negative online reviews.  (Here are links to the more recent...

Back in August I reported that Ohio amended its ethics rules to make clear what is required of lawyers who are physically located but not l...

The ABA Standing Committees on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and Professional Regulation have developed a Discussion Draft of possi...

The Oregon State Bar recently announced it is considering a proposal to approve a program for what it will refer to as "Licensed Parale...

December 5, 2021 Back in September I reported that a judge had imposed sanctions on several lawyers for the Trump campaign for the frivolous...